1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a unit for disposal of refuse and contaminants, and more particularly, to a portable unit for disposing of refuse and contaminants by thermal oxidation, producing close to zero emissions at elevated temperatures.
2. Description of the Related Art
The disposal of waste material presents numerous problems of environmental and economic concern. A common means of disposal of waste material, including contaminants, cardboard boxes, plastic, paper and other wastes products employs the use of incinerators to burn the waste material at high temperatures. While this method of disposal is effective to some degree, incinerators are generally large, cumbersome and costly to manufacture and operate. For this reason, most manufacturing facilities, medical facilities and other businesses need to transport waste material on a regular basis to a disposal facility having an incinerator.
Another problem associated with use of conventionally known incinerators is the difficulty in maintaining low emissions to minimize release of harmful pollutants to the atmosphere. The need to adapt to increasingly strict EPA disposal guidelines places an added burden on disposal facilities, and businesses, significantly increasing the cost of disposing of waste material.
In the related art, there have been various portable refuse treating apparatus developed which are suitable for use at a business facility having to dispose of waste material. In particular, the U.S. patent to Mogi, U.S. Pat. No. 5,170,724 discloses a burning apparatus having a burn-promoting plate which is specifically designed to burn fuel and refuse while giving rise to almost no smoke. The Mogi device employs the use of a burn-promoting plate which is designed to cause the refuse to be burned from top to bottom in a burning chamber. The refuse thrown in the burning chamber is ignited using fuel and a direct flame such as, for example, a match. Thus, the refuse is burned at relatively low temperatures. While this device is suitable for disposing of various waste material such as cardboard boxes, grass and bark, the burning method does not employ high enough temperatures for properly disposing of various contaminants, including sludge, grease and medical waste products.
The Dessi', U.S. Pat. No. 5,086,713, discloses a refuse-treating unit which is adapted to hold a predetermined amount of refuse in a chamber for sterilization by heat to convert the refuse into at least a partly converted sterilized mass. The sterilized mass is then compacted to convert the mass into a compact block. While the Dessi' treating unit is particularly suited for disposal of medical waste products, it is a significantly expensive apparatus to manufacture and, thus, is primarily limited to higher end users such as in the medical industry. Further, the Dessi' unit is not particularly suited for disposal of other contaminants and waste products such as those commonly found in maintenance and repair facilities, including grease, sludge, oily rags, contaminated absorbent materials and the like.
Accordingly, there is a definite need in all industries having to regularly dispose of refuse and contaminants for a portable, low cost device specifically structured to dispose of refuse and contaminants through thermal oxidation while producing close to zero emissions at elevated temperatures.